Anti-Semitism, Palestinian statehood in UK vote
Rising anti-Semitism and the issue of Palestinian statehood will be among the factors in the equation for Jewish voters when the United Kingdom heads to the polls on May 7 to determine the country’s next ruling political party and prime minister.
The election’s two major contenders are the Conservative Party, led by current Prime Minister David Cameron, and the left-leaning Labour Party, led by Member of Parliament (MP) Ed Miliband. In the voting booth, British citizens will only choose an MP to represent their local constituency. After all votes are counted, the party that musters a majority of MPs in the House of Commons legislature will form the national government. That party’s leader usually becomes prime minister.
Leading up to the election, different polls indicate that the Conservative and Labour parties are likely to finish with a similar number of seats. If neither party musters a majority of seats in the House of Commons, a coalition will be needed to form the government. The race also includes the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (SNP), the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), the Green Party, and other parties.
In a recent poll conducted by London’s Jewish Chronicle newspaper, 69 percent of Jewish voters said they would support the Conservative Party, compared to 22 percent for Labour. Only 13 percent of respondents expressed support for Miliband, who is Jewish, while 64 percent supported Cameron.
Dr. Daniel Staetsky, a researcher for the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Re-search (JPR), told JNS.org that while British Jews “are less right-leaning than what can be expected on the basis of their socio economic status… [their] right-leaning is not new.”
A 1995 JPR survey of the social and political attitudes of British Jews showed that 45 percent of Jewish voters supported the Conservative Party, 41 percent supported Labour, and 14 percent supported the Liberal Democrats. Among the general British public at the time, 29 percent supported the Conservatives and 57 percent supported Labour.
